Civic Center

The pulse of New York City is in Civic Center. This is where the city breathes and breeds; the laws are either made or upheld here. When a New York sports team wins a championship, a celebratory parade ends right in the middle of City Hall Park. On July 9, 1776, George Washington read the Declaration of Independence to a large crowd here. The area's Park Row was once known as “Newspaper Row” and was essentially the birthplace of modern journalism. Today, Civic Center remains critical to the everyday functioning of the city. Many municipal and government buildings dominate the infrastructure – buildings such as the FBI headquarters; the city’s court system and the NYPD headquarters. Plenty of people (some 20,000 or so) call this 10-block neighborhood home. The boundaries of Civic Center start at Worth Street to the north, the East River to the east, Ann Street to the south and Broadway to the west.

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The price of a slice of pizza and the cost of a single ride on the subway has been nearly equal for the past 50 years.

Chernobyl is closer to New York than Fukushima is to L.A.

Manhattan was purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for the equivalent of $1,050 (in 2014).

The "New York Post" established in 1803 by Alexander Hamilton is the oldest running newspaper in the United States.

New York City's 520-mile coastline is longer than those of Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco combined.

Brooklyn was once the “Coffee Capital.” By 1906, about 25 million pounds of coffee a month was roasted at the Arbuckle Brothers coffee factory on John Street.

France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1886 for its Centennial celebration. The statue was shipped as 350 pieces in 214 crates and took 4 months to assemble at its current home on Ellis Island.

In 2010, 38% of all 911 calls in NYC were butt dials.

On November 28, 2012, not a single murder, shooting, stabbing, or other incident of violent crime was reported in NYC for an entire day. The first time… in… basically… ever.

European settlers who brought seeds to New York introduced apples to the US in the 1600s.

The first capital of the United States was New York City. In 1789 George Washington took his oath as President on the balcony at Federal Hall.

The scary nitrogen gas tanks you sometimes see on the corners of NYC streets are used to keep underground telephone wires dry.

The United Nations headquarters was established in New York City in 1952 after World War II.

The borough of Brooklyn would be the fourth largest city in the United States, if it weren't part of NYC.

Central Park, which opened to the public in 1858, became the first landscaped public park in an American city.

Charles Feltman is said to have invented the hot dog at Coney Island in 1867. The famous Nathan’s was later opened by one of his former employees.

Oysters were so popular in New York in the 19th Century that their shells were used to pave Pearl Street. They were also used for lime for the masonry of the Trinity Church.

In 1920, a horse-drawn carriage filled with explosives was detonated on Wall Street killing 30 people. No one was ever caught, but the event is considered to be one of the first ever acts of domestic terrorism.

Twizzlers candy was developed by the National Licorice Company in Brooklyn in 1845.

New York City has 722 miles of subway tracks.

In 1884, in order to prove that the Brooklyn Bridge was stable, P.T. Barnum led 21 elephants over it.

More Chinese people live in New York City than in any other city outside of Asia. More Jewish people live here than in any other city outside of Israel.

The narrowest house in NYC is in the West Village: 75 1/2 Bedford Street is just over 9 feet wide.

New York City’s Federal Reserve Bank has the largest storage of gold in the world. The Fed's vault is 80 feet below street level and contains $90 billion in gold.

It can cost over $289,000 for a one-year hot dog stand permit in Central Park.

The first American chess tournament was held in New York in 1843.

The New York Public Library has over 50 million books and other items and is the second largest library system in the nation after the Library of Congress. It is also the third largest library in the world.

All through the 20th century, and up until 2007, parts of Lower Manhattan were wired up using Edison’s original 110V DC.

A Brooklyn shopkeeper named Morris Michtom and his wife Rose are credited with inventing the teddy bear.

Prospect Park is Brooklyn’s largest public park. The duo behind Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert B. Vaux, created the Brooklyn icon in 1867.

There are tiny shrimp called copepods in NYC's drinking water.

Sixty percent of cigarettes sold in NYC are illegally smuggled from other states.

The original Penn Station was considered to be one of the most beautiful train stations in the world but was torn down because of declining rail usage.

There is a death in New York City every 9.1 minutes.

The city of New York will pay for a one-way plane ticket for any homeless person if they have a guaranteed place to stay.

New York City has more people than 39 of the 50 states in the U.S.

In 1922, there was a Straw Hat Riot. It was an unofficial rule in NYC that straw hats weren't allowed to be worn past Sept. 15, but some unruly kids started snatching people's hats a few days before that, causing an uprising that lasted a few days.

Albert Einstein's eyeballs are stored in a safe deposit box in New York City.

The first daily Yiddish newspaper appeared in 1885 in New York City.

The first bank card, named “Charg-It,” was introduced in 1946 in Brooklyn by banker John Biggins.

More than 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Four in 10 NYC households speak a language other than English.

Joseph C. Gayetty of New York City invented toilet paper in 1857.

America’s first rollercoaster debuted on June 16, 1884 on Coney Island in Brooklyn. Known as the Switchback Railway, it only traveled six miles per hour.

A little over 8 million people live in New York City. That means 1 in every 38 people in the United States calls NYC - home.

Eating a New York bagel is equivalent to eating one-quarter to one-half a loaf of bread.

740 Park in Manhattan is currently home to the highest concentration of billionaires in the country.

NYC garbage collectors call maggots "disco rice."

On 9/11, when all transport out of the city was shut down, citizen boat owners managed to transport over 500k people from Manhattan Island in an amazing act of selflessness and camaraderie known as the “9/11 Boatlift.”

The acclaimed movie "Taxi Driver" featuring Robert De Niro was filmed at Bellmore Cafeteria on Park Avenue and along Columbus Avenue.

Elvis departed for his 18-month military service in WWII from the Brooklyn Army Terminal.

It is a misdemeanor to pass gas in NYC churches.

Since Brooklyn’s terrain is mostly flat, it’s the fastest borough for runners in the New York City Marathon with an average speed of 8:14 minutes per mile.

It would cost about $17,000 to take a cab from NYC to L.A.

NYC buries its unclaimed bodies on an island off the coast of the Bronx called Hart Island. Since 1869, nearly a million bodies have been buried there. The island is not open to the public.

Credit card minimums ARE legal in NYC. In 2010, Congress legalized up to a $10 minimum.

Gennaro Lombardi opened the first United States pizzeria in 1895 in New York City.

Sam Schapiro began the Kosher wine industry on New York's Lower East side with their famous extra heavy original concord wine in 1899

All square footage measurements are approximate and should be independently verified and confirmed. No guarantee, warranty or representation of any kind is made regarding the completeness or accuracy of such measurements and Ideal Properties Group LLC expressly disclaims any liability in connection with such measurements.